If anything, I'm probably biased in favor of Google's small constellation of Chrome devices: I've played with virtually all of them, and I use the $249 Samsung Chromebook Google launched last year, plus the associated Google deskbound Chromebox, as my daily driver. And I can tell you: for all of the amazing hardware that Google has packaged inside of the Pixel, the price would still give me pause.

Yes, the hardware is amazing: a 12.85-inch display with a gorgeous 2,560-by-1,700 display, shining brightly at 400 nits, complete with a multitouch touch screen. That's 239 ppi, versus 227 for Apple's 13-inch Macbook with a Retina display. Inside, there's the guts of a "true" notebook: a 1.8-GHz, dual-core Core i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and either 32GB or 64GB of flash storage, depending on whether you opt for the $1,299 version or the more expensive $1,449 Chromebook. In either case, Google will gift you with a full terabyte of Google Drive cloud storage - which, on the surface, appears far more than most people will ever need, even for the three years for which the offer is active. All told, the Pixel weighs a comfortable 3.35 pounds.

All of that horsepower comes at a slight cost. Battery life, for example, seems to slightly decrease in each subsequent Chromebook model. The original Cr-48 test device offered true all-day computing, of at least eight hours or more - besting the MacBook Air, in certain cases. Sundar Pichai, the vice president of Chrome at Google, said that Pixel should last over five hours. In practice, that sounds slightly ambitious; I'm writing this hands on on the Pixel, and the internal battery meter estimates the time remaining at 2:46, with 60 percent battery life remaining. Not bad, but not quite the performance for which I was hoping.

A Nexus Chromebook
The Pixel is the first Chromebook that Google commissioned itself, although it used a small, undisclosed ODM partner to manufacture it. Pichai himself admitted that it was fair to consider the Pixel the equivalent of Google's Nexus tablets and phones: the premiere Chromebook experience.

"We want to give [the customers] the best possible Chromebook experience," Pichai said, and it shows.

With the Pixel, the lines between touch-enabled phones and tablets, powered by Android, and the touch-enabled computers like the Pixel or Windows 8 machines are blurring, Pichai admitted. But, he added, there's room for both. With Chrome, Google hasn't forced touch upon the user, like Microsoft almost has. On the other hand, you have to wonder: why do I need this again?

While other Chromebooks feel plasticy and perhaps a trifle flimsy (which, given their price, one can forgive) the Chromebook Pixel simply exudes fine engineering. The solid aluminum body feels sturdy without any clunkiness, and the piano hinge connecting the screen and the body traverses the width of the Pixel, apparently boosting Wi-Fi performance in the process.

When shut, a thin color bar on the back of the display shines blue; when the device is running low on power, it turns red. The bar will be exposed via API to developers to take advantage of, Google executives said. Unlike other Chromebooks, the Pixel comes with a backlit keyboard, although you'll notice a bit of light leak out from the keys, including the top row. Even the touchpad is apparently made of laser-etched glass.

Pichai said that the keyboard has been improved over earlier models, with upgrades made to the mechanical "dome" underneath each key. I can confirm this; the keyboard feels less mushy than the $249 Chromebook, which I brought along for comparison's sake. Google buried a microphone under the keys to eliminate the noise the keys create when you're talking with others via a Hangout. Two other mics are built into the lid, as is a 720p Webcam.

The touch screen feels as responsive as any tablet; Pichai said that Google has "touch enabled" Chrome OS and the Chrome browser. In reality, that means that you'll be able to shift tabs around with a finger, and swipe away the shortcut bar at the bottom of the screen. Unfortunately (or not, in my view) switching between browser windows is still easily accomplished via Alt-Tab, a capability that Google leaves out of its Apple Macintosh implementation of Chrome. Still, there's really nothing that screams, "Wow! Touch!"

Don't worry about playing high-definition videos with the Pixel; Pichai said that more than one can be played simultaneously, and that's true - although why you'd ever want to, I don't know. On the one hand, the Pixel will begin venting a lot of heat if it's asked to run CPU- or graphics-intensive apps, such as Google's 100,000 Stars app, which provides a 3D model of the Milky Way galaxy. On the other, the heat appears to be vented via the sides of the Pixel, somewhat similar to the way Microsoft's Surface does - not directly down on a lap or desktop.

But What Do You Do With It?
Like the Cr-48, Pichai said that it was important that the Pixel be distributed to its early adopters, those users who have traditionally "lived in the cloud," to use Pichai's words. The problem, unfortunately, comes down to the question that users are asking new devices again and again: what apps do you offer?

Within Android's Google Play environment, that question is rather easily answered, with most developers releasing Android versions at or about the same time as the iOS versions. But the "popular" apps within the Chrome Web Store, which drives Chrome OS devices, are mostly Google's own apps; games like Angry Birds, Bejeweled, and Cut the Rope; and a few knockoffs. Personally, the most compelling Chrome OS app I've found is the indie game Bastion; besides that, there's just not that much.

Most of Google's own Office aps provide nearly all the functionality of Microsoft Office; in a few months, Pichai said, Google will bring its QuickOffice acqusition to ChromeOS, adding full(?) compatibility with Microsoft's own Office suite.

Still, at this point, there simply aren't the high-performance apps to justify a Core i5, let alone the stunning, "Retina Plus" display that Google offers. It looks fantastic, and purchasing a Pixel may be an investment in the future, as Google adds more functionality. But recall that the Nexus Q received an early beating, and vanished overnight. For now, my recommendation would be to try out the Pixel, if possible, and see if the hardware justifies the purchase. But if you're interested in a Chromebook, my advice would be to buy one of the older, cheaper models first, and then see how the Pixel evolves.

About the Author

Mark Hachman Mark joined ExtremeTech in 2001 as the news editor, after rival CMP/United Media decided at the time that online news did not make sense in the new millennium.
Mark stumbled into his career after discovering that writing the great American novel did not pay a monthly salary, and that his other possible career choice, physics, require... See Full Bio

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